Across Lake Michigloom (Steve GM)
08/08/2024
The group has been back at Samurai Base for only a week or so after their adventures to the west when they are contacted by the Tower asking the group to undertake another repair mission. They had previously repaired a broadcast tower on the southern edge of the Baronry of Horn but this repair mission will take the group to the other side of Lake Michigloom about 300 miles away. The Tower tells the group that the tower that they need to repair is located at a place called Fife Lake in a place that used to be called Michigan. The Tower believes that the broadcast tower is still standing and should be visible from a distance away but the group will probably need to gather some intelligence once they reach the other side of the lake, hopefully from friendly natives, that will lead them to Fife Lake.
The Tower also instructs the group on how to connect their radio that they got from the Legion of Gold to the portable computer and uses that connection to download information that the group can use when they reach the tower to assist with repairs. Once the group heads across the lake, they will no longer be in touch with the Tower.
The group makes preparations, including deciding what gear to take along with them in their underwater vehicle, known as the Aquatron 7. They will definitely take the portable computer and the high tech diving suit. They also decide to take the portable .50 caliber machine gun that comes in a rolling case and can be assembled for use.
The group knows that they should try to make the trip at night when they can use the stars for navigation. The Tower has suggested that they pull into a place called Arcadia Bay on the northwest coast of Michigan. They will need to navigate their way there.
The night they plan to leave is heavily overcast so they wait until the next night when the weather is clear. They decide to surface every 2-3 hours to check their course. At their first surfacing, neither Spook (the group's best navigator) nor Psymon (who knows only a little about navigation) are sure if they are on course but Sakasi (who is a decent navigator) thinks they need to veer a bit to the right and continue on. They follow his advice and continue on for another 2-3 hours before surfacing again.
Spook is still unsure if they are on course or what course corrections they need to make but both Sakasi and Psymon have more confidence in what they need to do to stay on course. Unfortunately their opinions differ as Psymon wants to veer more to the right thinking that their current course is too northerly while Sakasi thinks they need to veer more to the left thinking their course is too easterly. In the end they decide to continue straight and surface again in one hour.
However, about 30 minutes later Sakasi, who is keeping watch at the bubble windows in the back of the Aquatron 7, sees a shark swimming down towards the submersible from above. He warns the group and soon others see it as well as a couple of more. Guile is currently driving (he and Spook are the best pilots of the vessel) while Azimuth is at the Maxi Taser controls (Guile is also skilled in remote gunnery).
When the creatures get closer, they turn out to be hammerheads, a human-shark mutant that the group has encountered before. They are armed with harpoons. Before Azimuth can shoot, the first hammerhead fires and hits the Aqautron 7. When the bolt hits, it explodes. Fortunately it only causes minor structural damage.
Azimuth fires the maxi taser at the hammerhead and hits him, taking him out of the fight (54 points of damage!). Unfortunately, each shot with the maxi taser reduces the range of the submersible. It can normally cruise for 10 hours but each shot reduces this by one hour.
Guile keeps the submersible moving straight hoping to get away from them but the other two manage to get shots off. Both cause not only structural damage but damage to systems as well. The first causes minor damage to the propulsion system while the second causes minor damage to the steering system. Neither are enough to force the craft to stop so Guile keeps going and leaves the hammerheads behind. However, the damage slows the craft down a bit and makes steering harder. Eventually they will need to effect repairs.
They surface about 30 minutes later to again navigate by the stars. This time they notice half the stars are blanked out as a massive storm system is moving in from the west. They quickly do their best to figure where they are and where they need to go. Sakasi is uncertain but both Spook and Psymon think they know how to proceed and, unlike last time, their opinions align. They submerge and continue another couple of hours hoping that this will put them where they need to be. At that time they will have been cruising for 8 hours with only 1 hour left before they need to recharge (the Aquatron 7 has solar panels that can completely recharge the vessel in 20 hours of direct sunlight).
When they surface this time, it is raining heavily. Spook changes shape into a Radzone Raptor and Azimuth deploys in the wet suit to stay near the choppy surface. Spook takes off and the vessel submerges to calmer seas below the surface. Guile keeps the searchlight on Azimuth, who stays near the surface, so that they don't lose him. The group stays in contact via Psymon's telepathy mutation.
Spook flies east and finds the western short of Michigan. Through the heavy rain he sees two bays. The one to the south is small and would not accommodate ships, which the Tower had mention Arcadia Bay should. The one to the north is much larger and seems the likely choice. In any event, the group needs to pull in anyway as they are about out of cruising power. Spook directs Guile to the bay (after retrieving Azimuth) and they moor up next to a partially submerged log on the northeast side of the bay. Large trees hang out over the water, shielding the vessel from above.
Spook tries to scout from the air but sees potential hostiles in the air and returns to the vessel. The rain is lessening so the group heads out and scouts a ruined city on the north side of the bay that Spook had spotted.
The town is entirely in ruins but they do find references to Arcadia so it tells them they are in the right bay. They begin a systematic search of the ruins over the course of the day. By afternoon, they are scouting to the north of the ruined city where they see some outlying ruins. Guile is well ahead of the group and hears some movement behind the hills and trees ahead. He uses the telepathic link that Psymon set up to warn the group to stop and he scouts ahead. He is not as silent as he would like to be but finally pokes his head out and sees a group of a half dozen or so small humanoids searching among the ruins. Or they had been searching. Right now they are stopped and looking generally in Guile's direction. To Guile they look like a cross between a small human and a racoon. He lets the rest of the group know. Sakasi identifies them as dabbers and says that they will probably run away if threatened. Guile does not think they have spotted him yet but they may have heard him make some noise as he was moving up.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
GM: The group earned 10 EXP last night from the preparation, the navigation across the lake and the encounter with the hammerheads.
To Copper Mist (Steve GM)
08/15/2024
Guile called out to the dabbers in a non-threatening manner, asking if he could talk to them and maybe do some trading. They respond positively and a conversation ensues.
Guile trades a croquet set and a chef's knife for information about where they want to go. They learn that there is a place called Five Lakes about 150 km to the northeast. The Tower told them to go to Fife Lake but the group knows how names tend to change to similar, more meaningful names since ancient times. However, the dabber mentions that there is another place that is also called Five Lakes about 50 km to the northeast of the first Five Lakes.
They also learn that there is a humanoid/pure strain human village about 30 km to the east in the desert where they might be able to get more information. The name of the village is Copper Mist.
Then another dabber comes up and mentions that the first place known as Five Lakes can be recognized by a tall, metal tower that sticks up into the sky above the mist that otherwise pervades the desert. Since the group is heading there to repair another tower, this sounds very promising.
The dabbers also have some medicines that they are willing to trade. Fone comes up to take a look. About half of the dabbers medicines do not appear to be usable anymore but Fone identifies 8 doses of Acceleradose and 5 doses of antitoxin. Of the 5 doses of antitoxin, there are 2 different types and Fone assume that some are better than others - stage 2 and stage 3 or stage 1 and stage 2. The dabbers will only trade really useful items for the medicines. In the end, the group trades Guile's revolver and Azimuth's flashlight for all of the Acceleradose and 3 doses of antitoxin.
After bidding farewell to the dabbers, the group makes the trip back to the Aquatron 7. Here they create a travois and prepare to depart for Copper Mist the next day.
The following morning, the group heads east. After about 10 km, they reach a rocky ridge line that marks the beginning of the desert that covers much of the interior of this part of the land. As the dabbers had mentioned, the desert is covered in a thick reddish mist that hides the ground. They can see occasional rocky outcroppings extruding from the mist here and there.
Spook is the group's best navigator, followed by Sakasi. Psymon has a rudimentary knowledge of navigation. The group also has a pair of compasses. Fone has a retek compass while Spook has a tech compass. They see a rocky outcropping about 2.5 km to the east and decide to descend into the mist and make for that where they can climb out and look for a further waypoint. Before departing, Spook piles up some rocks here so that when they reach the next outcropping they can see where they started from.
They descend into the mist and head east. They hit the correct formation and climb out. In this manner, they cover a total of 16 km by looking for a waypoint to the east, descending into the mist and heading towards it, and then climbing out whey they get there, to repeat the same process.
They miss their last waypoint and Spook changes shape into a large Radzone Raptor and flies up to get his bearings. Sakasi also uses his newly acquired Telekinetic Flight ability to hover above the group so that Spook can find his way back.
As he is looking around, Spook sees the correct rock formation and heads towards it. Sakasi does as well, dragging a rope so the group can follow in the mist. Spook reaches the outcropping and looks back.
Way back behind Sakasi, Spook sees 4 flying creatures. Using his telescopic vision mutation, he identifies them as radzone raptors. The rest of the group reaches the outcropping and climbs to the top, out of the red mist. They set up and wait for the creatures to arrive and attack. The group tries some long distance shots but miss. Then the radzone raptors swoop by and attack with mental blasts from a standoff distance. The group responds with ranged weapons. Both sides take damage in the initial skirmish.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night. It does not look like the creatures plan to close to brawling distance so this will be a ranged battle.
GM: The group earned 8 XP from the encounter with the dabbers.
GM: The group has travelled a total of 16 km since entering the desert. They are not sure if they have 4 km to, 14 km to go, or somewhere in between.
To Copper Mist (Steve GM)
08/22/2024
The radzone raptors continued to harass the group, hitting them with radiating eyes, and missing everyone except Fone, who took only a little damage from the radiation before shifting to mental blasts for a few rounds. Then they came around again and attacked all four mutants (Guile, Psymon, Sakasi and Spook) with radiating eyes. They missed Guile but hit everyone else, causing damage as well as sickness and dibilitation (-2 to DX, PS, THAC, etc. for Sakasi and Spook and -4 for Psymon). Psymon used his Total Healing to get rid of the radiation effects the following round.
Then Guile suggested concentrating on a single radzone raptor. They managed to finally kill it with ranged attacks. All of the others were damaged, some more than others. Then they decided they had had enough and flew off.
It took 10 to 15 minutes before the vomiting and sickness wore off for Sakasi and Spook and then Fone administered first aid (patch wounds skill) to everyone. The group decided not to use biocort or acceleradose but to continue on and let the nano bots do the healing overnight.
The group continued east but started feeling the temperature begin to rise even as evening approached. A check of the Geiger counter revealed that the millrem count was going up precipitously as they moved east. They climbed out of the mist to see what they could see and decide what to do next. Spook changed to a radzone raptor and did some scouting with the Geiger counter. As a result of the scouting, the group decided to try to skirt the area of high radiation to the north.
The group travelled a bit further and then set up camp on a rocky outcropping that extended out of the mist and was out of the area of higher radiation. The night passed uneventfully.
In the morning, the group continued on, skirting the radiation area and resuming their eastward trek. Eventually the mist started lessening and Spook, with his telescopic vision, could see a flag a few kilometers away sticking out of a rift in the ground, possibly indicating the location of Copper Mist. The group continued forward.
Then Guile, with his enhanced hearing, stopped as he heard very distant sounds of screams and shots fired that no one else could hear yet. The group started moving again at a faster pace and eventually reached the rift at the bottom of which was a settlement - almost certainly Copper Mist. However, a battle had obviously taken place here. There were lots of dead and dying lying amongst the buildings. The victors were also there, some engaged in violent raping and pillaging. Some of the bodies were those of dead soldiers so it was not entirely a one-sided battle. The soldiers were wearing the uniform that The Tower had indicated belonged to the empire to the south.
The group decided to intervene and charged forward. Not surprisingly, Sakasi got down into the rift first via some stairs and came suddenly upon another soldier raping a young girl. He charged and attacked the soldier, hitting with a critical hit (and almost a grievous wound). His electrical attack hurt both the solder and the young girl.
GM: Remind me next session about Sakasi's hit on the soldier. Since the soldier was on the ground raping a girl, and completely surprised by the attack, I am going to rule that Sakasi hit with a grievous hit. We can resolve next session that we play Gamma World.
Battle of Copper Mist (Steve GM)
09/12/2022
The battle of Copper Mist began in earnest. Guile and Azimuth also charged forward. Guile leaped down to ground level and started shooting the soldier. Azimuth stayed up on the final platform before ground level and used his Remington Roomsweeper. Fone and Spook stood back and shot from a distance, Fone with his reloading gun bow and Spook with his fusion rifle. Psymon used mental attacks. He eventually determined that his Empathy attack would always result in a fight reaction rather than a flee reaction so he stopped using it.
By the end of the session, about half of the soldiers were dead. Spook and Sakasi are both badly wounded. |